About a year after the Academy expelled Roman Polanski, citing “ethical standards,” the Oscar winner has sued the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is demanding his reinstatement.
In addition to asking the Academy to reverse its decision, according to Variety, Polanski is demanding the organization pay costs incurred by the suit. The suit alleges that the Academys decision to expel Polanski—which was announced at the same time as Bill Cosbys expulsion—“is not supported by findings, and the Academys findings are not supported by evidence.”
The Academys Board of Governors voted last May to dissolve Polanski and Cosbys memberships, in accordance with the organizations new standards of conduct. At the time, the organization said it “continues to encourage ethical standards that require members to uphold the Academys values of respect for human dignity.”
Shortly after the decision, Polanskis lawyer told Vanity Fair that his client would attempt to appeal the decision.
“We want due process,” Harland Braun said at the time. “Thats not asking too much of the Academy, is it?” The suit claims the Academy did not follow proper protocol in dismissing him.
In 1977, Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and fled the country after serving 42 days, when it seemed as though he could be sent back to prison. Despite this criminal record, Academy voters celebrated Polanski in 2003, when he won an Oscar for directing The Pianist. The filmmaker earned a standing ovation at the Academy Awards ceremony, which he did not attend.
Last May, shortly after the Academy announced Polanskis expulsion, Samantha Geimer—the woman Polanski sexually assaulted when she was 13 years old—told Vanity Fair that the decision was “an ugly and cruel action which serves only appearance.” She added, “It does nothing to change the sexist culture in Hollywood today and simply proves that they will eat their own to survive. I say to Roman, good riddance to bad rubbish, the Academy has no true honor, its all just P.R.”
Even before the decision was made, Polanski called the #MeToo movement a form of “mass hysteria.”
“I think this is the kind of mass hysteria that occurs in society from time to time,” Polanski said in an interview with Newsweek Polska. “Sometimes its very dramatic, like the French Revolution or the St. Bartholomews Day massacre in France, or sometimes its less bloody, like 1968 in Poland or McCarthyism in the U.S.”
[contf] [contfnew] 
Vanity Fair
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
